So, You Want To Run New York City?

I've had some time to digest my NYCM experience and there's a lot of things I can laugh about...now that it's over and done. But there's some things you should know if you ever want to run in the New York City Marathon. Also, I needed an excuse to post more pictures.

1. The Verrazano Bridge is approximately 47 miles long. 46 of those miles are uphill.

2. The locals are very friendly. And they are very open to foreigners.

3. Trust me when I say not to stop moving while on the Verrazano Bridge. Keep jogging until you get off. I moved over to the side to adjust my earbuds and iPod and the entire bridge was bouncing. It's unnerving.

4. The entire city is uphill. NYC is not flat, people. It is uphill in every direction.

5. The Wall of Sound so many people talk about midway through the Queensboro Bridge is a myth. At least for any slow runners. Don't get your heart set on experiencing it like I did. But the view is amazing.

6. Take selfies.

 

7. Law enforcement in NYC are handsome.

 

  

 

8. Mile 22 is actually 7 miles long.

9. If you are in the last wave, chances are good you will finish in the dark. 

10. No matter what kind of race you have, once you cross that finish line, you are a NEW YORK CITY MARATHON FINISHER!! Go straight to the nearest pub and have a glass of wine...or beer....or 17 shots of tequila. I'm not here to judge.

 

 

 

 

The New York City Marathon Recap

Oof. I have no idea where to begin with this recap. I truly thought that the NYC Marathon would be the most amazing experience of my life. But it wasn't. Not even close.

The first cool thing I did was go to the Asics tweet up with my friend, Ari, at the NY Public Library. It was rainy and kind of gross outside, but I got to meet some cool people I follow on Instagram and we got free Asics gear, which was a score all around.

After the tweet up, we headed to the expo. I won't go into crazy detail about that because once you've been to one major race expo, you've been to them all. Sadly, I didn't find anything I couldn't live without and I had purchased the NYCM back pack the week before, which I am in love with. I want to snuggle with it at night, I love it so much.

  

 

As for the race, well, let's just nothing I wanted to happen, happened. Except for the whole finishing every single mile of the course and then some, according to my Garmin. First of all, let's talk wind. The wind that day was so incredibly strong that it actually knocked some people over and the wheel chair start was moved off of the Verrazano bridge for the safety of the competitors. As I was running along the bridge, the wind actually ripped my ear buds out multiple times and caused my iPod to pause. But it was still one of the coolest parts of the course. 

 

I didn't have high expectations for a good finish time for this race because of the wind and the fact that I had been sidelined for a month due to my knee injury, but I also didn't expect the wind to make me feel so, so sick. My lungs burned for the entire race and it was not from exertion.

 

I won't bore you with a mile by mile recount of my experience, because over all, it pretty much sucked. I'm probably the only runner on the planet that has run the NYCM and thought it was miserable. One thing that really contributed to my misery was that I found myself at the very end of the course support for the race. The course has a 7 hour time limit and I have no idea if that time limit starts from the first wave or the last, but it seemed to happen way too early.

There are no sweepers and you can finish the race even after the 7 hour time limit, but let me tell you how demoralizing it is to see all of the emergency vehicles and listen to an endless loop on loudspeaker saying, "this is the end of the New York City Marathon" for an hour straight because they were moving at the same pace as me at that point. The longer I had to hear it, the more upset I became until I pretty much ran out of steam.

 I'm not sure how I got caught up in that procession, though, which just adds to my frustration. I was in corral A of the last wave, which started at 10:55. That processional came through when I was at or very close to mile 20. It was only 4:00, meaning I had only been on the course for 5 hours and was definitely set to finish under 7 hours. Now, my pace slowed exponentially at this point because I was so upset about a whole bunch of things, but I still finished under 7.

 I think I would have had a better outlook if I wasn't beating myself up for being at the end of the race. Never mind the fact that there were tons of runners behind me. Also, I was incapable of doing math at this point, so in my mind, I was going to finish an hour later than I actually did. 

 

And the Wall of Sound that everyone talks about on the Queensboro bridge in every recap I have ever read? Yeah, that shit is non existent for the later runners. I had imagined that experience for years and so I kept pulling out my ear buds over and over hoping to experience it for myself. Nope.  

Luckily, two very good friends, Abby and Debra, talked me off the ledge via text when I was losing my shit at about mile 17. So, a huge heartfelt thank you to both of them, because I was so upset and so miserable that I wished I had someone with me.

It was not the race I trained for nor hoped for, but I did it. Every last single mile of that course. And you know what, a week later, I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself. I was sick, injured and hadn't run in a month in an effort to save my knee for the race itself. A month ago, I could have pulled off a 5:45 time and it took me an extra hour to finish. But I finished. And it's going to be a really long time -if ever- that I do a full marathon again.

Also, the poncho is super warm and kitten approved.

 

 

 

 

 

Dumbo Double Dare, NYCM, Horse Shows and Kittens. Oh My!

Things have been pretty busy 'round these parts. Training for the NYC Marathon has officially begun, and I have to give a shout out of thanks to my friend and barn mate, Lara.

Me, Tara and Lara last weekend at the Scottsdale green belt.

Lara is pretty hard core. I don't know if she'd agree with that statement, but trust me, it's true. She's been dragging my butt out on all sorts of crazy hill runs on very rocky, mountainous terrain, and while they suck at the time, I have to say that I appreciate the fact that she doesn't let me make excuses to bail. Not to mention, we live in Phoenix and since running the mountain path isn't possible in the dark, we do it at about 6:30pm, which is still incredibly hot.

Yesterday, she also met me for a long run at another, much more flat, desert park to get in 9 miles.

I got up at 4:00am to meet her and a coworker (who is also running the Disneyland Half and possibly Dopey in 2015) at 5:00am.

My Long Beach Marathon visor is my absolute favorite.
Feel free to ignore the bags under my eyes.

I stayed out a little later than I probably should have (I believe going out for sushi is an acceptable reason) and I may have had a glass of wine...but only one. Those 9 miles felt a little tough. It was in the 90's even at 5:00, so that's my excuse. The good news is that I'm definitely keeping a faster pace when I'm running, but the bad news is that I seem to be taking more walk breaks than I would like. I'm going to blame that on the heat.

Anyway, thank you, Lara, for helping me train for NYCM- especially considering the longest race she has planned in the near future is a half marathon (although she has already done a couple of fulls).

This summer will be the fourth year I run the Disneyland Half Marathon. This is my favorite of the Disney races. I know a lot of people like the WDW races better, but for me, DL Half is the best. It was my very first half and is currently my PR. The course is so much more entertaining than WDW races.

 I'm super excited to be doing the Dumbo Double Dare. I know it's going to be a blast.

Me with my sister, who did the 5K, in 2012.

I don't have a specific plan for training for Dumbo, but it overlaps with NYCM training, so I'm just trying to fit in some back to back longish runs as training. Since I've already survived Goofy, I don't feel too worried about doing Dumbo.

Plus, I'm super excited to hang out with these awesome ladies again...

Abby, Fruitfly and Me after the WDW Marathon in January.

And, of course, by trusty running partner in crime, Tara...

Tara and I don't have similar schedules, so it's really hard for us to meet up for training runs. Not to mention, we live a bit of a ways from each other. Hopefully, we'll be able to plan some long runs during NYCM training.

In other news, I also leave for a horse show on Thursday up in the mountains and I can not wait to get out of this heat. We're also going back in August. Louie has been awesome, so I'm hoping that streak continues through the horse show. He's such a great little horse and I'm having a blast riding him.

I'm also most likely going to be adding to my animal family very soon. Both my dog and cat passed away in the last two years and I think it's time to adopt some new furry friends.

My horse trainer is fostering a mama kitty and her kittens for the Humane Society and I could play with these babies all day long.

Seriously. How cute are these kittens? I don't know how I'm
going to pick out just two. I love them all.

Oh Em Gee

Whew! What's new with everyone else?